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_____During the first season of publication SHOUT was finding its way (initially Bonelli and Grant charged a dime per copy but quickly decided to remain true to the original idea of a free paper which SHOUT remained throughout its publication) covering entertainment from Atlantic City to Cape May and interviewing a diverse group of icons ranging from jazz great Count Basie to controversial blue comedian Lenny Bruce (both of whom performed in Atlantic City in August of 1962), but by the second season Bonelli and Grant decided to focus exclusively on the Wildwoods which provided a cornucopia of entertainment, including acts of both local and national acclaim. Also in 1963, Shout featured a new masthead. The change came after Grant happened to notice a small poster stapled to a telephone pole in downtown Wildwood advertising Joey Dee and the Starliters, and their hit single SHOUT was boldly featured on it. He really liked the way the letters looked and knew it would make the perfect logo for the paper so he removed the poster, took it back to headquarters, then carefully cut out and pasted the letters down, added a few stars and off to the printer it went.
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| _____Grant loved his new livelihood; he was a young man getting to hang out in swinging nightclubs and fine restaurants, photographing celebrities and rubbing elbows with entertainers and musicians... a dream job for a 19 year old guy. For Bonelli though, devoting time to this new venture was not easy. He had other responsibilities including operating the family business at Bonelli's Market in downtown Wildwood and to make matters even more difficult, Bonelli's father became ill. Bonelli felt the weight of all this and after only the second season made the tough decision to walk away from the paper he co-founded. So by the 1964 season it became Dennis Grant's SHOUT. He left the Bonelli home and moved himself and SHOUT headquarters to a rented room at the Raymond Motel on Oak Avenue in Wildwood where he lived and operated SHOUT for several years. The paper didn't make any money the first year of operation nor did it make much the following and now going into the third season, as sole owner, Grant had to borrow a small sum of money to keep the ball rolling and many times he swapped an advertisement in SHOUT for a hot meal with one of the many great restaurants that advertised in its pages. Yet, regardless of his money woes, Grant remained determined to make his paper a weekly must-have for everyone staying, living or visiting the island. His primary goal was to make SHOUT a "feel good" paper with nothing negative within its pages. His objective was to promote the advertisers businesses while providing a fun way for visitors to find out about all the good times to be had in the Wildwood's. |
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Copyright 2012 Ralph Grassi
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